Huge surprise indeed. Tendulkar would have owned Jharkhand and so would Zaheer, but the Mumbai batting has lately been weak. In addition, they've often missed Jaffer and Rahane hit a low in this event, as also the rest of the batting. TN missed Balaji as well, and their bowling was weak. Karnataka was strong, but Mithun isn't that good a bowler and the star sons had a long, free ride. The biggest casualty, though, was Delhi, and a little less, Baroda and Uttar Pradesh, who lost a lot of their top players.

"Talent is nothing without opportunity"
"You're not remembered for aiming at the target, but hitting it"

Jharkhand's victory in the Hazare Trophy has been well-received, as the comments page on Cricinfo suggests. While some teams (notably Mumbai) could have played better, there was a distinct lack of quality players in this event. While that's a matter of debate, the question is how many international prospects can you get from here, post Dhoni? Maybe Saurabh Tiwary, by a longshot. It will be a while before the likes of Jaggi, Nadeem, Varun Aaron and Krishnatry make the national side or even the reserves. Then again, you wonder, if the lesser teams seem more adept at limited-overs cricket.

Two games down in the Deodhar Trophy. Central Zone edged out South Zone in a low-scoring encounter not too different from the World Cup games on Sunday. Parvinder Singh got a fifty, and Dinesh Karthik scored 89 but couldn't win the match. Pankaj Singh took two cheap wickets, but the highlight was RP Singh, looking stronger and fitter, and bowled a lot better.

Today, I caught the West Zone innings against South Zone. Batting of West was poor, with frontline batsman Pujara scoring 49 off 81, with other contributions coming from Jaffer (31), Parthiv Patel (90) and some bits and pieces scores. Lack of partnerships and singles resulted in West being bowled out for 247 in the final over. Varun Aaron bowled with pace, fire and power, to scalp five wickets against what is, on paper, a reasonably strong batting side. He bowled more than a few above 145k, and hopefully, will win matches for East, like he helped in doing for Jharkhand. Far better than Dinda.

West eventually won the game. Parthiv Patel top-scored with 90, in a scratchy innings not too far from Nasser Hussain's 2002 Natwest final innings. Jaffer was sublime in a score over 30, while Pujara scratched to 49 off 81, while East Zone looked largely the better side when they bowled out West for 247, with pacer Aaron taking five. That was until East came out to bat, as lots of wickets fell cheaply. While Orissa's Samantray got a fifty, the scorecard was replete with batting failures, and all of Jharkhand's top batsmen, who won the Hazare Trophy, were out for single-digit scores. Wickets were shared.

Now, Parvinder Singh got his maiden hundred, to add to six fifties. It was a good innings in a largely unimpressive batting performance, bar one fifty lower down. None of the batsmen made any difference. Ishant Sharma was decent, not going over five and sneaking in a maiden. Joginder Sharma was stroked around finished with an economy over six, but bowled a whole lot of wicket-taking deliveries, two of which were successful. Sumit Narwal was outstanding, yet again. He rolled in two maidens and took a wicket, and was largely tight coming in first-change. The best bowler, however, was Amit Mishra, enticing the batting and taking two wickets in the final over before Pankaj Singh lofted him for a six in the final over. Fielding was largely better than yesterday, so far.

Sumit Narwal has done very well in the last two (or more) seasons, and unlike certain other players, isn't an age cheat. Bowling at medium pace, he's made the ball talk, in stark contrast to India's most favoured seam options. In addition, he's also useful without the ball, though still Irfan Pathan lite. After the World Cup, he should be a regular prospect, alongside Pankaj Singh and Vinay Kumar- worthy of a selection in India A and Board XI.

Ishant Sharma and Joginder Sharma have taken out all of the West top order for 49, bar Pujara, who's still out there. Ishant has three, Joginder, two.

Ishant's current spell has interested viewers, as can be gauged on Cricinfo. The commentator as well as a fan say he should have been playing the World Cup or at least catch selectors' attention. Narendra Hirwani is watching.

FC and List-A seasons over, let's look at some highlights. Rajasthan won the Ranji Trophy in FC, but were squished in the Hazare List-A tournament. That was, however, won by another Ranji Plate league team, Jharkhand. None of the star-studded, stronger teams made it. Mumbai had several forgettable moments, with a weak batting record letting them down. Likewise, Karnataka were let down by playing those two star-sons who don't add anything of note, and were caught on the wrong foot. Delhi and UP (and less so TN) were hampered by the lack of international players- and it made a huge difference across the tournament. Punjab struggled again, while Haryana has done a lot better, progressing to the quarters in Ranji and semis in Hazare. The BCCI should take note and schedule knockouts and zonal events only in the off-season, or with no international action. You can't get too many prospects from events like these. Seriously, a premier OD series during the World Cup? Or FC games held when India is touring SA?

There are prospects, though. While India's frontline spin stocks of Harbhajan and Ojha are highly debatable, you have options in Ashwin, Mishra and Murali Kartik. In fact, they should be playing in the first Test and ODI XI, not languishing in oft-ignored domestic cricket. India's spin stocks are not running dry- they're stuck with the wrong options.

Even as India seem to go a bowler light and the absence shows more often than not, one of Joginder Sharma and Vinay Kumar should play as the third seamer and seventh batsman. Both have tremendous FC experience, impressive bowling figures, decent batting ability and are good on the field. Pankaj Singh may also be thought of as an option, with insurance (Ashwin and Harbhajan may be enough), while Laxmiratan Shukla is good for ODIs, though the return to form and fitness for Irfan Pathan will sort out a lot of issues.

As future prospects, they can invest in Iqbal Abdulla, Shahbaz Nadeem and Bipul Sharma. Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Jaidev Unadkat and Sumit Narwal can make the seam stock for a development side. Batting stocks are healthy as ever, with immediate replacements as well as future prospects, but the latter category need to tour more often with India A.

Most of the players will be from Jharkhand and Rajasthan, the respective winners of the domestic FC and L-A tournaments. I'd expect Ashok Meenaria, Ishank Jaggi, Saurabh Tiwary, Pankaj Singh, Deepak Chahar, Shahbaz Nadeem, Varun Aaron and outside of this bunch, Mumbai's Iqbal Abdulla, TN's Mukund and Aniruddha, Karnataka's Manish Pandey, MP's Naman Ojha and Delhi's Vikas Mishra. Sumit Narwal from Delhi may be a long shot, given his age and relative (in)experience, but he's been a thinking man's bowler, and is also useful with the bat. A more current example would suggest its relevance. It's a strong selection, if it happens, quite balanced, and has folks who are in form but fresh. Let's just avoid the usual suspects, please!

In the Bengal/Kerala match, Saha and Nandi came in at 68/5, and then both took the Maharashtra bowling apart. Saha hit five fours and six sixes to score 85, and with a little support from Nandi, took the team to 171. Maharashtra folded up cheaply, with Dinda taking 4/13, as Bengal cruised into the quarters. Haryana defeated Kerala, but outside of Saha's performance, there was nothing noteworthy.

In the Delhi/TN game, TN prevailed, without any stellar performances. All of TN's top three, Vijay, Aniruddha and Badri, scored heavily to take TN to an eight-wicket win. Wickets were few and far between there. In the game against Orissa, TP Sudhindra, Anand Rajan, Monish Mishra and Jalaj Saxena.

Dinda has a good slower ball and he can and has bowled at over 140kph - he is definitely a solid OD and T20 prospect.

He lacks accuracy, and sprays it around most of the time. He's been smashed around in the ODIs he has played and has barely played T20Is, and isn't even an IPL regular. He's played more matches than he's taken wickets in T20. He's only as fast as Ishant Sharma, and doesn't offer too much more. While not looking at bowling, he's a good fielder, but a poor lower-order batsman. Maybe he's a second-line or third-line OD/T20 prospect.

Besides, there are more accomplished bowlers like Vinay Kumar, Pankaj Singh, Joginder Sharma and RP Singh, as also Sreesanth and Ishant, to look at, before giving him any more caps.